After the Serum
by riddlemetris
Summary: After Tris is shot and she releases the memory serum into the Bureau, she wakes up in the hospital alone. Based off of Alegaint. Most likely will contain Allegiant spoilers.
1. Chapter 1

TRIS

I woke up in the hospital. The room smelled sterile, and there was a faint buzzing noise somewhere in the distance. Other than that, it was quiet. I couldn't remember it ever being this quiet. There was an IV in my arm, pumping clear fluid through my veins, healing me from the inside out.

How was I here? I couldn't remember anything after I was shot. The bullet pierced my skin, my side folded in on itself, my organs in a full panic. I was sure I was dying. My body fell to the floor and David laughed. I remember that. I remembered setting off the memory serum that was supposed to flood the Bureau and wipe everyone's minds clean. We were going to rebuild their memories. Tell them that there was no such thing as a genetically pure or a genetically damaged person. We were going to save our friends and families. We were going to save our city.

Had it worked? How long had I been in this room, lying on this bed? More importantly, who had gotten me out, and how? I resisted the death serum, difficult as it was, but there was nothing I could do about the bullets David shot through my body. If Caleb had been the one to go through, he would have died. There is no way he would have been able to resist the urge to sleep, the urge to fall away from consciousness. I hadn't been able to, after all. I had gone to my mother. That's why I thought I had to be dead. When I saw her with the bullet holes still in her torso, coming for me, I went to her. I let her take me in her arms and take me away from my body. But that still left me with my questions.

Maybe this was the afterlife. Maybe when people die, we go to a white hospital room where you have to be healed from all of your earthly wounds. That would make sense, I guess. But this didn't seem like Heaven or anything like that. This felt like earth. It smelled like the Bureau.

Just as I was considering getting up and trying to find my way out, a woman walked into the room. She was a nurse or maybe a doctor, I couldn't really tell, and her scrubs clung to her every inch. I wondered if they were out of her size on scrub buying day. Maybe they didn't make her size. This was all irrelevant, I was obviously in a weird state of aftershock or something.

"How you feeling, honey?" her voice was warm and comforting.

"Okay, I guess. How did I get here?" I croaked.

"You were brought in by your brother after you were shot." Caleb had brought me? Caleb had gotten me out? How was that even possible?

"You were out cold. Honestly we didn't think you would make it. But he got you in here just in time."

"What about the death serum? How did he get past it?"

"The what? What serum?" I had forgotten that these people might not know what a serum was. This woman obviously didn't. Maybe I hadn't nearly died for nothing. Maybe it all worked out.

"Never mind, I'm just confused. So he just walked in and got me?"

"That appears to be what happened. Now I need to check your vitals. Sit up for me if you can." I sat slowly, a pain spreading through my side and up to my head. I winced as I tried to sit upright.

"There's a good girl. Now, hold out your arm." I did as she asked, and she wrapped a thick band around my bicep and checked my blood pressure. As she was taking my temperature, I remembered Tobias. Where was he? Where had Tobias gone?

"Have you seen Tobias?" I asked, hoping that he hadn't gotten hurt in the process of all this. Of course, he had been in the city seeing his mother, so he was probably alright. I was still afraid though.

"Tobias is fine. He's been in here every day, sitting in here waiting for you to wake up."

"He's been sitting in here all day?" Surely he knew I didn't need him to do that.

"Well, he's been working with everyone. Teaching." So Tobias was helping teach the people about their new history. Good.

"How long have I been in here?" I finally asked.

"About two days," the nurse smiled, "but you'll be better soon. We mostly were just waiting for you to wake up." She finished up the test and put her supplies away. My head had calmed a bit, but my side was still livid with pain.

"You should be able to get out of here within the next two days. Everything looks near perfect. Except that pesky bullet wound, but it's nothing you can't tend to in your own room." She asked me if I was hungry, and I realized that, yes, I really was. She smiled and said she'd bring up a tray from the cafeteria.

As the door shut behind her I started to try and make sense of everything. So I wasn't dead. That was good. They serum seemed to have worked, considering that the nurse had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned the death serum. This was all good. This was what we were hoping for.

A few moments later, the door opened slowly, and while I was expecting it to be the nurse again, it wasn't. It was Tobias, holding a tray from the cafeteria.

"Tris?"

"Tobias!" I wanted to jump from the bed, but my body didn't seem to want to move.

"Tris, don't get up, I've got it." Tobias walked over to me and put the tray in my lap. The meal in front of me would normally not have excited me, but I guess being holed up in a hospital room, unconscious for two days. While my stomach called out to the plate in front of me, the only thing my brain wanted to look at was Tobias. Tobias was alive. I was alive. So many things could have gone wrong. If Caleb had been just a little bit later, I might not be here. Tobias would be devastated, or at least he would be upset. I wasn't really sure how he would feel if I were to die. I hadn't ever really thought about it.

He wrapped his arms around my neck and I breathed in his scent. He smelled like grass and sunshine. He must have just come in from outside. He pulled back and looked into my eyes, and I looked right back. His gaze was fierce, and I could see the fear that had been lying in them just days, maybe even hours or minutes before this instant. Fear that he would lose me. Fear that I was gone.

"Tobias how am I here?" I asked with as much desperation as I could manage. My voice was hoarse, and my throat was dry as dirt.

"Caleb saved you. It was a miracle, really."

"But what about the death serum?"

"After David shot you and he thought you were dead, he left, and in order for him to leave, he had to turn off the death serum. He didn't bother turning it back on because he thought you were good as dead and that no one would come looking for you. He of course couldn't shut the door since you blew it off with the explosives, so it was left unlocked. Caleb had been waiting for you close by, and when you didn't come out, he went to look for you. He found you lying on the ground covered in blood, barely alive."

So Caleb had saved me, and he was still alive. This was amazing. It was too good to be true.

"What about the memory serum? Did it work?"

"It worked perfectly. No one remembers anything about the genetically damaged or the genetically pure. We're reteaching them. It's working wonderfully." This was so great. Then I remembered something else.

"Is Uriah really…" Tobias's face changed then to a more somber expression.

"Yes. Uriah is gone now. He can't come back. He wasn't as lucky as you."

"It's not fair." I felt tears welling up behind my eyes.

"I know it's not, but he's alright now, okay?" I nodded, wiping my tears with the hospital blanket.

"I know. I just miss him."

"Me too Tris." He held me then, tight against his chest. "I'm so glad you're alright Tris. I was so worried. I didn't know if you were going to wake up." A sob heaved out of me, and I folded further into his embrace.

"I'm glad I'm here too. I never wanted to leave you. I told Caleb to tell you that I didn't want to leave you."

"He told me. He told me after you'd been in the hospital for a couple of hours. And you didn't Tris. You didn't leave me. You're right here where you belong." I sniffled and sobbed again.

"I almost wasn't though. I saw my mother, she was right there and I went to her. I didn't even think about you then, I just wanted to go to her, even if it meant I was dead. I'm so sorry Tobias."

"Tris, don't apologize for that. She's your mother, and you were dying. There's nothing to be sorry about."

We sat like that for a long time. Eventually, he climbed up on the bed with me and held me against his chest. At some point, we dozed off because I was awoken by the creaking of the door opening. I opened my eyes and as soon as they focused, I jerked to attention. It was not the nurse standing in the doorway. It was David, sitting in his wheelchair, gliding towards Tobias and me. Tobias jumped up from the bed, his face growing hard and cold towards David.

"Hello Tris. I see you're doing a lot better now."


	2. Memories

TOBIAS

The sight of his face made me so angry. This was the man who tried to kill Tris, he had shot her in the stomach. He had probably laughed or at least smiled. But he didn't remember any of it. When the serum erased everyone's memories, we had told David that he was a worker in the hospital. Not a doctor or a nurse, but just a guy who brought around medicine for patients. I had originally voted to make him a trash collector, but we decided that while he had obviously been a terrible person in the past, there was no reason to let his intelligence completely go to waste. So we placed him here. I had hoped Tris would never have to see him again.

Tris's eyes widened and she looked at me and mouthed, "Why is he here?" I shook my head and looked back at David with his tray of small plastic cups filled with pills.

"You had a pretty bad wound," he said, "thankfully you're a fast healer." Tris looked uneasy. I would be too if the person who had tried to murder me was giving me medicine. David held out one of the little cups to Tris, and she took it reluctantly.

"What is this?" she asked.

"Just something for the pain," he said, smiling. Tris took the pills from David, but set them beside her instead of taking them.

"Thank you," she said, her voice strained. David wished us a good afternoon and left us alone again.

"What was that?" she asked me, "Did his memory get erased?"

"Yes. He has no memory of you besides you being a patient in this hospital. He thinks he has never known you before two days ago." She looked amazed.

"So it really worked? The plan really worked?"

"It seems that way. I mean, I think we have to keep a watch on it, but all seems to be okay at this point." She smiled, but I could see the doubt behind her eyes.

"What if it wears off? What if the serum stops working at some point?"

"We're hoping that won't be the case. Try not to worry about it." She nodded,

"I'm going to go back to sleep now." Tris put her head back on her pillow and closed her eyes. "Are you going to stay here?"

"I can if you want me to."

"No, you should go back to working. I'll be fine." I touched her hair, thankful that her skin was still warm and full of life.

"I'll be back soon," I told her. She nodded and a pleasant look overtook her face. She was already falling asleep.

I walked out of the hospital wing and into the Bureau, only to see our progress that was already evident. People were milling around, getting tours of their own home from Christina. I walked past one of the labs where Caleb was teaching a group about something or another. All seemed well. All was well. I was actually in a mild state of disbelief because this plan of ours seemed to have actually worked. These people didn't remember anything. They all looked so happy. So many smiling faces that before had only frowned and concentrated on working.

I made my way to the room where I could see my home. Chicago's memories were not wiped. I had found this out shortly after Tris was hospitalized, and I was thankful, but still worried. Were they still going to have a war of sorts? The whole reason the Bureau had been planning on erasing their memories was because they were afraid the people of Chicago would start killing each other and destroying all of their precious genetic material. Their memories had not been wiped, but of course neither had their hatred. Of course, my mother had agreed to try and make peace with Marcus, and she had sentenced him to leave the city, but how effective would that be anyway? I worried about my father and what he might do in wake of his banishment.

As I watched the screens, I could see anything I wanted. Mostly I watched my mother. In the last few days, she had loosened her grip on the city. There was no strict curfew and people were allowed to choose their jobs and tasks. It was still in the beginning stages, of course, but it looked like this was the beginning of a new Chicago. Evelyn had told me how much better she felt now. Surprise as it was to her, letting go of the people brought her relief.

"I just have more time now that I'm not obsessing over having control over these people," she had said yesterday when I went to visit her. I was happy for her. Honestly, I was just happy in general.

While I was looking around at the other screens, something else caught my eye. It was Peter, standing in the old Dauntless Headquarters, staring into the chasm. He looked pained by something, although I wasn't sure what. He had voluntarily erased his memories, his past. He wasn't the same person anymore, so why was he staring into the chasm, seemingly looking like he wanted answers? I watched him like this for about half an hour, staring down into the hole, walking around it, sitting by its edge and letting his feet dangle freely over nothingness. His mouth was moving as if he was talking to someone, but there was no one there.

All of a sudden, a figure appeared behind him. He had a knife. Peter reacted quickly by grabbing the person's wrist and using all his force to push the guy to the ground (it looked like a guy, anyway). The man fought back, grabbing and at Peter's legs and slashing them with his knife. Peter pinned the figure's arms down with his heels and stood over the figure, staring at him hard. He then reached down and pulled the black ski mask off the man's face. The guy was young, and he held up his arms by his face as if trying to protect himself. I couldn't believe my eyes. There on the screen was a person I never expected to see again. It was Uriah, and he looked furious.


End file.
